Lawyer says gov’s ouster letter ‘unlawful’
Superintendent of Holyoke Soliders’ Home calls out Baker
The superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home is resisting the Baker administration’s attempt to fire him after the release of a devastating report on the facility’s handling of a deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders sent a letter to Bennett Walsh, the suspended head of the Holyoke facility, terminating his employment when the report was made public last Wednesday.
But Walsh’s attorney and uncle, William Bennett, fired back Friday in a letter claiming Sudders and her office “have no authority to take this action” and that the power to end the superintendent’s employment instead rests with the soldiers’ home board of trustees.
“I consider your letter invalid and your attempt to terminate Mr. Walsh unlawful,” Bennett wrote in a missive obtained by the Herald.
In the June 24 letter signed by Sudders and approved by Gov. Charlie Baker, a copy of which was obtained by the Herald, Sudders cites “critical failures by you and your leadership team in preparation for and response to COVID-19” unveiled in the report.
“There is no confidence in your ability to perform your responsibilities as Superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home,” Sudders wrote.
Sudders backed up firing Walsh with a section of state law that says the superintendent “may be removed by the secretary at any time” with the governor’s approval.
But Bennett referenced a competing clause that gives the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Board of Trustees the power to appoint the superintendent.
Walsh is locked in a legal battle with the state and the Board of Trustees over his employment in a case currently winding through Hampden County Superior Court. An attempt by the state and the trustees to advance a hearing in the case to lift a preliminary injunction preventing the board from meeting — filed the day after the report dropped — was denied. Judge John Ferrara said “there is no ‘emergency’ detailed in this filing” to prompt moving up the hearing scheduled for July 30, according to court records.
Bennett said in his letter to Sudders that firing Walsh ahead of a meeting of the trustees “appears to be an attempt to deprive” Walsh of his rights to a hearing and potential appeal.
Walsh was placed on leave from the soldiers’ home on March 30 after high-ranking Baker administration officials learned of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak at the facility.
The scathing report on the independent investigation by former federal prosecutor Mark W. Pearlstein found Walsh “unqualified” to oversee the home where 76 veterans have died of the virus and cites “substantial errors” by the facility’s leadership team that likely contributed to the staggering death toll.